The present disclosure relates to substrate sensing devices, and more particularly, to a device and method for characterizing a substrate.
It has been discovered that the quality of a substrate, such as paper, can vary from batch to batch, which can have a significant impact on image quality (“IQ”) performance of print jobs. This variation usually occurs when paper is manufactured. Even substrates of the same type, whether they are glossy, recycled, copy, or formal substrates, may vary in quality from batch to batch. One of the types of variations in which batches may differ is their electrical properties. It is known that the electrical properties of a substrate play a major role in image quality performance, since an electric field is utilized to transfer toner to substrate. Thus, the electrical properties affect the IQ performance of a print job, which in turn, increases image mottle and/or spots, more specifically, half-tone mottle.
In the business arena, a customer usually reports a print quality problem to a service technician. The service technician then examines the configuration of a printing machine, the condition and quality of the imaging components of the printing machine, and the type and/or brand of paper being used. The service technician evaluates the problem and presents the results to the customer. It would be useful and beneficial to have a device that can characterize the quality of paper and determine whether the substrate has caused or will cause any implications to print quality and/or image quality.